Two More for The Roll

The first blog I came across was the US History Teachers Blog which is a blog where teachers can post and share videos and sites that can be used in the classroom. I found this blog to be interesting because I'm studying Middle Level Education-Social Studies and some of the videos could be used in my classroom. Besides videos for the classroom the blog also offers tutorials on how to use some of the new technology in the classroom. One of the posts I found interesting was one about a teacher offering an in-service instruction on how to use an e-book for a history class. The name of the post was Using the US History e-book. For my blog I could this blog as a source for anyone teaching social studies to get ideas for videos or lessons in the classroom.

The second blog I came across was the Greatest Middle School Social Studies Blog in the World which was put together by a middle school social studies teacher in Connecticut. This blog is similar to what we are doing in this course at the college level. Each student has their own blog to feed ideas off of each other and to ask help from the teacher if they need it while they are at home. As for the front page of the blog the teacher posts his lesson plans for the week, so each student will know what will go on in class and what is expected to be done on their blog. Here's an example of a lesson plan from Week 6 of the 2011 school year. This shows how schools are moving into the social media aspect of technology and incorporating it in the classroom. For my blog this a link a teacher can use to model their blog after for their classroom. It is something that I would use in my classroom because it is a fast way to help my students and for my students to give each other feedback on projects. But ultimately they can share what they learned in class and have discussions about it.

My Beliefs about Technology and Learning

           Technology in the classroom is vital in today's world of teaching. Teachers need to be able to utilize these forms of technology in the classroom. Computers and iPads are becoming a key part in classrooms. These are being used for research in the classroom for assignments. Smart boards are now replacing the chalk board and whiteboard and are an easier tool for teachers to show how to do problems and where to find information on research. Technology will be the future as kindles are now replacing textbooks and that can save districts money to divert elsewhere. I honestly do believe that technology will be vital to the classroom of the future. Yes many things need to be done without technology like solving some math problems without a calculator and writing cursive. Just look back at high school and how much technology was in the classroom. You had laptops, overhead projectors, and smart boards. Schools are starting to move beyond just these few things to using ipods, ipads, kindles, and twitter. We have to become familiar with all of these tools to be able to enhance the learning of our students. By using blogs you can create a classroom community where your students can be engaged and share ideas back and forth to each other. As a teacher I look forward to incorporate multiple modes of technology in my classroom. This will enable me to do different activities within the classroom with those modes of technology.